Skaggs claims win at Hilltop Speedway

Mike Morrison

Sports Writer

Ohio Valley Sprint Car Association driver Nathan Skaggs captured his second consecutive victory at the Legendary Hilltop Speedway Friday night and his third win in as many attempts on the quarter mile dirt track this spring. Photo courtesy of Zach Yost.

For the third time this season, the Ohio Valley Sprint Car Association brought their show to the Legendary Hilltop Speedway and for the third straight time Circleville native Nathan Skaggs claimed the win on the quarter-mile dirt track.

Skaggs led the first 20 laps of the 25-lap feature event before surrendering the top spot to Danny Smith after getting trapped behind some lapped traffic.

Three laps later Skaggs regained the lead when he too was able to use the lapped traffic to his advantage to power past Smith on the high side of the track and go onto to capture the win.

“We ran strong all race long but some lappers kind of held me up,” said Skaggs, who started the race on the outside pole. “Things kind of lined back up for me and once I saw where he (Smith) was running I was able to take the high side and made it work.”

Things quickly went from bad to worse for Smith who set fast time with an incredibly fast time of 11.947 seconds when he spun out with two laps to go to bring out the fourth and final caution of the main event.

Skaggs was not challenged on the restart and easily held off second place finisher Jamie Myers for the win.

Wayne McPeek, Chris Ferrall and Bryan Nickles rounded out the top five.

While Skaggs was making it three wins in the OVSCA race, “Fast Freddy”Carpenter did him one better in the AMRA 25-lap late model feature as he led every single lap to notch his fourth victory of the season at “The Top”.

Carpenter started on the front row alongside Corey Conley and quickly powered his way into the lead.

The veteran racer was never seriously challenged as he notched the seventh win of the season in 10 races for the Carpenter family.

“I just want to say how much we appreciate all the sponsors and all the fans,” said Carpenter after the race. “We couldn’t be out here doing what we love to do without either one of them.”

Conley held on for a second place finish followed by Steve Lucas, Ronnie Mayle and Zach Hill in third through fifth respectively.

Young Tyler Evans was also trying to claim his fourth win of the season and his third in a row in the AMRA 20-lap modified feature but he proved to be no match for Zanesville’s Brad Goff in his first visit to Hilltop this season.

Goff and Evans battled fiercely for the first handful of laps of the event before Goff finally managed to put a bit of distance between himself and Evans.

Evans kept his number 17 machine within striking distance of Goff but despite a desperate attempt at a last-lap pass for the win came up a bit short in his attempt to make it three-in-a-row.

Evans barely held off Nathan Loney for second while Robert “Booger” Garnes and Shawn Jett rounded out the top five.

Legendary Hilltop will return to action this Friday with racing in all classes including the return of the AMRA Hot Mod’s, 4-Cyliner’s and Street Stock classes.